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Mexicans protest at tortilla prices

TENS of thousands of protesters took the streets of central Mexico City on January 31st to protest the high price of tortillas. The Mexican staple of corn tortillas has more then doubled in price in parts of the country, with even sharper increases in certain regions. The spike stems from a shortage in domestically produced white corn used to make the pliant tortillas, which account for much of the nutrition in the diets of poor Mexicans, and used to sell for less than $.50 per kilo.

The march was followed by a rally in the zocalo presided over by Andrés Manuel Lopéz Obrador, a centre-left candidate who narrowly lost last year's presidential elections to Felipé Calderon. But Mr Lopéz Obrador, who still contends that he was the victor in July's elections, and styles himself the "legitimate president" of Mexico, was sidelined by organisers from the main event, who feared that his personal agenda would distract from, rather than draw attention to, the issues. Despite the protests, a nationwide poll by Ipsos/Bimsa, a respected polling firm, released on February 6th found that Mr Calderon, who won with only a third of the vote, had a 58% approval rating.